Travelling 10,825 miles through America to capture 123 movie theaters scattered across small towns, Rustin Thompson has shaped the journey into a feature documentary, The Last Picture Shows. A world premiere at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, this ode to movie houses and the workers and audiences keeping them alive will soon begin a summer rollout. Ahead of a national theatrical tour beginning July 5 (see locations and dates here), we’re delighted to exclusively debut the first trailer and poster.
Here’s the synopsis: “Filmmaker Rustin Thompson journeys into the American West on a search for traces of what was once a center of small-town life: the movie theater. On the trip, he finds long abandoned and forgotten cinemas; movie houses that have fallen into disrepair; theaters recently closed, theaters struggling to hold on, and theaters that—thanks to their thoughtful caretakers—are not only surviving but thriving. Between the stops along the way, Rustin poetically intersperses excerpts from Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 classic film The Last Picture Show, as well as reflections on past and present hardships facing the film exhibition industry. The Last Picture Shows is not only a timely portrait of an industry in crisis, one facing the headwinds of consolidation, streaming, and the diminishing theatrical experience, but it also reminds viewers that even in vast cinema deserts, there are oases of community and gathering that remain, where the movie house continues to be a place of wonder, contemplation, and connection.”
“It became clear to me that what I thought would be a downbeat film consisting of rundown facades and one-hundred-year-old memories was actually a story of hope and resilience, of community and spaces of gathering, of people committed to preserving and providing culture, art, and entertainment in the towns they grew up in,” said director Rustin Thompson. “Sure, there were elements of elegy: closed and neglected theaters lost to history, theaters turned into pizza parlors and Subway sandwich shops, cinemas still teetering on the edge of extinction. But the story I ended up telling was mostly one of survival. The people I talked to are there to stay.”
See the exclusive trailer and poster below.
